Week #47 | The Death That Leads to Life and Proclamation

LOOK | WHAT DOES IT SAY?

Matthew 27:1-28:20; Mark 15:1-16:8; Luke 22:66-24:53; John 18:28-20:25; Acts 1-12

THINK | WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Jesus (Unlike Barabbas) Conquers by His Death. There is a moment in Matthew, Mark, and Luke's Gospels that sticks out to me. It's the part where Pilate offers the crowd the choice to either free Jesus or Barabbas (Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23). Jesus looks like a loser. He looks physically beat up. He looks tired from having been run around from place to place all night. His closest followers are nowhere to be seen. Jesus hasn't done anything to solve the problem of Roman occupation since he arrived in Jerusalem. Momentum is not on his side. But Barabbas has a track record of getting things done. He's an insurrectionist who's killed for his country (Luke 23:19). He's shown his willingness to roll up his sleeves. He's committed to solving -the crowd believes- the real problems. Whatever the excitement over Jesus was during the Triumphal Entry, he hasn't done anything since getting to Jerusalem (or so the crowds believe). He's gotten everyone excited over nothing, and he's let people down. Jesus is weak. Barabbas is strong. The crowd chooses Barabbas. But Jesus is not weak. He's not ignoring the important issues. The people want instant results, and they think the problem is something external. They want a leader who will deal with the problem over there. But Jesus comes to deal with the problem inside of us. Jesus conquers, not by the death of others, but by his own death. Our problem is not some external thing outside of us. Our problem is within. Jesus came to take that away. He came not to give us a kingdom, but to welcome us into his kingdom. If we are willing to accept that, then not only will we be ready to follow Jesus, but our entire approach to life will be entirely and radically transfigured--we will be equipped to live in such a way that heaven touches earth.

The Reliable Witness of the Resurrection Appearances. It's important here to recap the appearances of Jesus--I just want to give you a picture of what it was like for those who first encountered him after his resurrection. FIRST, The Gospels of Matthew (28:10) and Mark (16:7) both record how Jesus sent word, through angels, to the women who came to his tomb on Sunday morning, to go to his disciples and tell them to meet with him in Galilee after his resurrection. But instead we find the disciples distracted with fear, and confusion, and disbelief. Luke 24:10-12 and John 20:1-10 actually tell us how the disciples did not believe the women who reported to them that Jesus had risen—Luke 24:11 says the disciples thought that the women’s words, quote, “seemed… like an idle tale, [so] they did not believe them.” Then we see that the disciples go and check out the tomb and find it empty, and they’re amazed, but they still don’t believe. (Though in his gospel, John says he believed—Jn. 20:8-9.) Then, SECOND, in John 20:11-18 Jesus appeared that day to one of the women who he had sent to his disciples, maybe to reassure her because at this point she’s starting to question herself. And at first she doesn’t recognize him, but then she does after he speaks to her. THIRD, later that same Easter Sunday, Luke 24:13-32 records that Jesus met and walked with two of the disciples on the road to a town called Emmaus, and they don’t recognize him, but then they invite him to dinner, and while he’s breaking the bread and blessing it at the dinner table they recognize him, and he instantly disappears. So FOURTH, now they’re starting to believe, and they’re freaking out, and they go to Jerusalem that night, still on Easter Sunday, to meet with the other disciples and tell them what they saw when, according to Luke 24:33-49 and John 20:19-23, “with the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jewish authorities'' (Jn.) Jesus appeared standing in the midst of them and said “Peace to you!” (Lk.) which sounds to me like Jesus is doing a jump scare. And there in that locked room in Jerusalem on Easter Sunday night, appearing to his disciples gathered together for the first time since the resurrection, Jesus tells them that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations (Lk. 24:47-48) and tells them “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (Jn. 20:21). And then, FIFTH, Jesus appears one week later still in Jerusalem to the apostle Thomas who was missing from that last meeting and had refused to believe the other disciples (John 20:24-29). Jesus appears and convinces him and Thomas believes in Jesus and calls him “my Lord and my God” (Jn. 20:28). Why did I walk you through that? Well, partly to show you why the disciples came to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. And, partly, to show you that the accounts in the different Gospels all tell one story. And just like any story where there are multiple witnesses, details in each of the accounts help to make sense of details in the other accounts, so together, they start to tell one coherent story. That is one of the marks of a story that’s genuine. And so we can trust this story.

The Proclamation of the Early Church. Imagine what it must have been like, 50 days after the Passover, for those remaining in Jerusalem to have witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Imagine seeing the disciples of Jesus show up and proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus in every language simultaneously, accompanied by signs and wonders. But here are some of the things that the early church needed to proclaim the message of the Gospel, which we also need today: (1) They needed the equipping of the Holy Spirit. This doesn't have to take the form of signs and wonders, as it did in Acts 2, but without the Holy Spirit transforming hearts and minds all of our ministry techniques are worthless. (2) They needed courage to proclaim the message. It must have been very difficult to preach in the same city, and in Acts 4 before the same council, that only a little earlier had condemned Jesus to death. As we see in Acts 7, some of them actually were put to death. The disciples had to seek God's kingdom rather than their own comfort. (3) They needed to raise up leaders and think about scale. The growth of the church forced them to organize in ways that caused them to raise up leaders and specialize certain leaders on certain activities. The apostles couldn't be involved in everything anymore or visiting everyone's home; they had to focus specifically on prayer, vision, and proclamation (Acts 6:1-4). Previously unknown people had to be recognized and moved into positions of influence (Acts 6:5-7). As we go into the second part of Acts after chapter 12, the focus of the book actually rests on the activity of an outsider, Paul, who had previously been a persecutor of the church. God used him more powerfully than he used any individual apostle who had actually been present with Jesus during his ministry. We don't get anywhere if we make it hard for new leaders to be raised up. (4) They needed to be forced to move outwards. At some point, the early church was almost a victim of their own success. Things started to seem like they were moving along smoothly (6:7-8). There wasn't any major push to move outwards; maybe the disciples thought they would, eventually, slowly, in a balanced way, move outwards when it made sense and they felt ready. The stoning of Stephen in Acts 7 was the event that took that sense of familiarity away. That event, more than any other since the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, set up the early church to move outwards and proclaim the Gospel with power and boldness. In Acts 8:4-8, it's the reason that the Gospel spread out to Samaria. In Acts 11:19-30, it's the reason that the Gospel spreads all the way out to Antioch and even begins to reach the Gentiles. If we will not move outwards on our own, God will make it uncomfortable for us to stay where we are. The Gospel will go out; but experiencing God's blessing on our obedience is better than having to be moved by his discipline.

DO | HOW DO WE RESPOND?

How can we respond in our worship, attitude, and actions? I won't lay out exact responses in this space because the possibilities are often endless. But it is worth it to think about application in the categories of worship, attitude, and actions. Does this reading direct me to God in worship and thanksgiving and praise, or does it direct me towards a change that I need to make here and now? If it's about a change that I need to make, is this something inward in my attitude, or outward in my actions? This helps to rescue application from just being a series of how-to tips, or one-size-fits-all instructions that go beyond what the Bible actually states. Sometimes, the most helpful application we can make is to get a different perspective on what's the most important thing, or about how we should respond inwardly to the things going on around us.

PRAY | HOW DOES THIS BRING US TO GOD?

Whether in response to anything pointed out here, or to something else in your Bible reading time, take a few moments before you close up your Bible to pray in response to God. If you need a format for prayer, both the ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), CALL (Confess, Ask, Love, Listen), and PRAY (Praise, Repent, Ask, Yield) methods are helpful ways to stay consistent.

-Sean